According to a report from TMZ, James Avery, the man who played adored father, uncle, and judge…
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That very day, a Twitter user claiming to be Smith, tweeted out the words "R.I.P. Uncle Phil" along with an appeal for retweets from fans of the show.

The reason for the odd request, according to @FreshPrinceWill, was to ensure that NBC approves a proposal for the taping of "one more Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode in honor of Uncle Phil."

If the tweet received over 300,000 retweets, the reunion would be greenlighted.

Of course, this all turned out to be a big fat hoax, but not before the obviously fake tweet was retweeted well over 100,000 times.

The real Will Smith waited until yesterday to post his tribute to Avery on the one and only social networking platform where he's truly verified: Facebook.

"Some of my greatest lessons in Acting, Living and being a respectable human being came through James Avery," Smith wrote in a Facebook post published last night. "Every young man needs an Uncle Phil. Rest in Peace."

Smith also posted a photo of "the last time we were together."

Taken in 2011 at a luncheon for a charity run by Karyn Parsons (Hilary), the photo appears to have been slightly augmented to exclude all non-cast members from the group shot.